BRIDGE

North-South had no game forcing club raise available, hence the awkward auction. North might have bid three clubs over South’s two no-trump, which would have been forcing after his fourth-suit bid on the previous round. North was anxious to learn about aces, however, so he used the Gerber ace-asking convention of four clubs. The four heart response showed one ace, so North leapt to slam in no-trump, leaving South to play it.

South won the opening spade lead with dummy’s ace and cashed four rounds of clubs. East discarded a heart and two diamonds, high-lowing to encourage in diamonds. East must have started with five diamonds to have discarded two of them. The opening lead suggested that East started with at least four spades to the jack, and he had a singleton club, therefore three hearts. Declarer cashed dummy’s king of spades and led a low spade to his nine, finessing against East’s jack. He cashed the queen of spades as West discarded a heart and a diamond.

West was known to have started with at least four hearts. South placed West with the ace of hearts because he hadn’t led the suit. Who had the jack? South decided to play West for that card because he started with more hearts than East, so he cashed the ace and king of diamonds and led a heart to his queen. West, who had only hearts remaining, won with his ace and led a low heart. South ducked this around to his 10 and brought home his slam!